There is too much mistrust for Pakistan: Haqqani

"There is too much mistrust of Pakistan. Yes, there is a history to it and we understand, for example, under the Musharraf regime, there wasn`t cooperation. But the democratic government of Pakistan has fully cooperated with the United States, and Secretary Clinton acknowledged that," Husain Haqqani, Pakistan`s envoy to the US, told the CNN in an interview.

"It is a process in which we need to overcome the burden of history, move forward. And so there will be certain occasions when we will be taking a step back. But there will be many occasions when we will move forward together to eliminate terrorism which is the common enemy of both the United States and Pakistan," he said.

Haqqani said the people of Pakistan want America to understand the situation on the ground.

"We would like the United States to realise that there are circumstances that have created the menace of terrorism in our country. Pakistan and the United States paired up to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. A lot of jihadist extremists are offshoots of that period," he said.

"We need a concerted effort inside Pakistan, an effort in which Pakistan`s own economic, political problems are taken onboard. This can`t be just based on specific actions, in which we cooperate with the US. All the things that the US specifically asks for in intelligence cooperation, military action, we are there to help the US," he said.

"But at the same time, the US has to understand why it is that these people are in our country, where they came from, and how we can work together to remove the support network that enables them to operate in our country," he said.